


Blood In the Water

by mr-im-fine (witch_lit)



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Exy, M/M, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates, Universe Alteration, implied Andrew & Renee, implied Renee/Allison, why does everything I write feel like a summary and not an actual fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 00:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15762555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witch_lit/pseuds/mr-im-fine
Summary: When the night was over and they were back at the house, Nathaniel told his mother about the green grass and blue sky and the purple bruises on his arm. They were gone before Nathaniel could make it back to that Exy court. On the run with his mother, all Nathaniel would get from his soulmate was snippets from tv interviews and carefully cut-out magazine spreads.





	Blood In the Water

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in May but finally edited and published it because I wanted to see more kevineil content!!!

Nathaniel’s breath caught a burst of color lights up his vision at the Stadium. How, when he’d met eyes with one of the strikers, his world had erupted into red and brown and bright green eyes. He’d gasped, and the other boy had too. This boy could be his lover, his best friend, or a motive to be better. His gaze was strong, and he’d moved towards Nathaniel as if on instinct. 

Then Riko had interrupted with a number 1 drawn on his face and Nathaniel had obediently looked away from his soulmate and focused instead on the color of Riko’s racquet, his gloves, his grin. There’d been no time to discuss soulmates when they were playing exy. His soulmate understood that just as well as Nathaniel. 

They’d been whisked away to some back room and had to watch as his father taught all three of them the true meaning of the color red. It had been his first night of seeing color, and it had been red, red, red. 

When the night was over and they were back at the house, Nathaniel told his mother about the green grass and blue sky and the purple bruises on his arm. They were gone before Nathaniel could make it back to that Exy court.  On the run with his mother, all Nathaniel would get from his soulmate was snippets from tv interviews and carefully cut-out magazine spreads. 

Kevin Day was an exy legend, and rightfully so, and grew up in enough spotlight that Nathaniel wasn’t completely starved of him.

He caught as many pieces of his soulmate as he could, scattered in moments when his mother was away. He slipped from name to name and rolled over one border to the next, knowing that stolen moments were all he would get with a soulmate who would be his damnation if they ever met again.

Nathaniel didn’t see Kevin again until he was Neil, small-town Neil with no mother and almost nothing to lose. An exy racquet in his gut and a midget with a temper kept him from bolting, but Kevin’s words and the obvious fact that he didn’t recognize Neil kept him from leaving for good. His promise to his mother to keep away from his soulmate felt so fragile when he’d already broken so many promises to her just by staying in Millport for so long.

Neil Josten signs the papers.

Every night, he thinks of skipping town and disappearing before graduation. He can’t count all of the reasons to leave, but even so they stand weakly against exy, against getting to know the soulmate his mother had been so wary of him knowing. He can run when Kevin recognizes him, when he sees Riko again. For now, the hard bench in the Dingos’ locker room and the curiosity burning in him will keep him on track for the Foxes.

* * *

 

When he finally meets them, Kevin and Aaron are almost silent, but Nicky makes up for it with his chatter and Andrew works in threats and pop culture knowledge. When Nicky talks about his soulmate, Erik, Neil asks if anyone else on the team can see color. 

Nicky gives him a delighted look in preparation to spill. The foxes, it seems, love to gossip.

“Seth’s soulmate is Allison, but he isn’t hers,” Nicky says gleefully. “Which is perfect for an asshole like him. Lets see. We think Matt and Dan, but we’re not totally sure. We’ve got a pool on it if you want to join”—He gives Neil a questioning look, but Neil shakes his head—“and Andrew and Renee are totally soulmates.”

Neil raises his eyebrow but doesn’t comment. He’d had cookies and sweet tea with the girls when they’d gotten in and he found it unlikely. 

Nicky catches the look. “Yeah, I know. Renee’s a sweetheart and Andrew is… Andrew. Renee swears it’s platonic, but the bets say otherwise.”

“That’s it?” Neil asks.

“That’s almost the whole team!” Nicky laughs, and Neil wonders if Kevin hasn’t told them.

“But what about you? When you look at the field, what do you see?” 

“All the mistakes I’m making,” Neil says, the racquet heavy in his hands. 

Nicky takes Neil’s words as a confirmation that Neil hasn’t found his soulmate, and starts talking about showing Neil how to be versatile about the gender of his future soulmate. Neil doesn’t care that Kevin is a guy, doesn’t even expect friendship out of him. He just wants to know him, and he wants to play exy. 

Columbia happens and he hates the thought of Kevin. He hates being drugged, hates Nicky’s mouth on his, and hates that Kevin takes dust and pours alcohol down his throat like it’s medicine and he’s a dying man. His blood boils and if he could kill Andrew would, and it’s all done in the name of keeping Kevin safe. 

He gives Andrew pieces of himself so he can stay, pieces he doesn’t want to surrender. He considers leaving, but he loves Exy. He loves the court, the promise of games and a stadium packed with people. He convinces Andrew he doesn’t work for the Moriyamas, that he’s not after Kevin, and after the night he’s had, both are true.

Then he joins Kevin for night practices and he remembers the person that he saw in all those interviews and magazine spreads. The determination. The ruthless devotion. He remembers the game and just how good they can be together, if Neil can just gain the experience he needs. 

Maybe Kevin is his soulmate because he’s his partner on the field and exy is all that’s ever really mattered to either of them. Neil can hide behind languages and fear all he wants, but Exy has always been it for him. With the stadium around him and Kevin at his side, Neil can’t help but feel exhilarated and motivated to be better. 

The first match draws closer and school adds stress to his schedule. They’re all worried about their first game, Neil especially, as the only new team member on the lineup. The pattern coding on the opposing team’s lineup is similar enough to the Foxes’ own solid orange and white to be a little confusing on the court for those that can’t see color. It doesn’t affect Neil, but he still nods along as Wymack tells those who can’t see color to pay attention. 

They lose the game, but Neil doesn’t lose his spirit. He scored his first goals and kept out of fights, even with Kevin and Seth going at each other whenever Neil was off the field. He feels a burning need to be better, and knows he can be. 

Neil is still exhausted from the game when he’s dragged onto national television the next morning, held by his promises to Kevin. There he meets Riko for the second time in his life and refuses to let Kevin shut down besides him. 

The last time Neil met Riko he found out who his soulmate was. This time, he knows who his soulmate is and won’t let him be torn down by callous hands. He claws at Riko’s number 1 position, takes him apart for Kevin the way he wishes someone could do to his father. 

When they’re backstage and alone with Riko Neil pauses to realize what he’s done, but he can’t collapse into it now. Kevin’s hand stops him from being hit, and Neil doesn’t know who is the most surprised.

Andrew saves them both, but it’s a temporary thing. A deal is made, and Neil can breathe for a moment, but trouble is still nipping at his heels.

Trouble comes Kevin-shaped and in the texture of Neil not wanting to let go. Neil’s too invested now, as much as he wants to run. He will run, eventually. 

Seth dies and maybe it’s his fault but he’s got to keep moving with his life. His mother taught him to roll with punches and he’s not going to stop over such a simple thing as collateral damage. It might make working with Allison difficult, but he’ll manage.

The banquet happens and the glue helping Neil hide Nathaniel starts to peel. Kevin’s looking at him with horror and speaking French with an audible disbelief. The way his face crumples, the way he starts to say  _ Nathaniel _ and pushes his fingers against Neil’s lips. 

“Je m’appelle Neil,” Neil says, and it’s more truthful than a lie ought to be.  _ My name is Neil _ . It almost sounds like a prayer, and something shatters in Kevin’s eyes. 

He is more like a ghost than a person on the bus ride back to Palmetto. He leaves Neil alone, for the most part, other than practices during the day and at night. He seems resolute to keep teaching Neil, even if they both know by know he’s going to die at the end of the year. 

Kevin is resolute in exy but distant off the court, a one-man walking disaster with a support network made of alcohol bottles and overworked muscles. Neil won’t run, and can only be there as Kevin mourns. 

Nicky’s family happens and Andrew leaves to get clean, and Neil wonders if Andrew knows he would do anything to keep Kevin safe. He must, with the way he entrusts Kevin with him. He probably doesn’t know just how deep it runs. 

Neil himself doesn’t know, his distaste for Kevin slipping away during night practices and shifting into something more like comfort. He’s made himself at home around Kevin. 

In Andrew’s absence, things stay mostly the same until the winter banquet. Riko threatens Andrew, threatens Kevin, and Neil ends up with tickets to Evermore for the holidays. He won’t put Kevin’s anchor through any more torture that he can stop, so he agrees to go.

Kevin’s past telling him to run, so at night practices he gives Neil as many tips about Raven scheduling and practice as he can. He does his best to teach Neil how to survive the nest, to take his blows. He shows Neil some of his scars and it’s not a competition but Neil’s sure he’s survived worse than Riko. It still makes his blood boil to think of Riko’s hands on Kevin, a blade under his skin.

They don’t say goodbye, exactly, but before he leaves Kevin tells him that Riko doesn’t know that Kevin has a soulmate. Kevin had never told anyone that he could see the world as fully as he’d ever be able to, his only secret in a nest of dragged-out truths.

When Neil comes back from Evermore it’s with a four on his cheek that makes him even more fitting of his status as Kevin’s soulmate. He’s covered in bandages, but when Kevin sees him, he goes straight for Neil’s cheek. He pulls off the gauze and huffs out a breath. His eyes are losses counted, a river spilling out over a plain.

“You really could have been court,” Kevin says. He surprises Neil by changing his grip on Neil’s chin and pulling him up for a kiss.

Eyes wide, Neil stares at Kevin.

Kevin frowns and lets go of Neil’s face. He puts the bandage back over the four and works his jaw. He won’t look at Neil properly. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

Neil doesn’t know what’s going on, but the pounding of his heart is louder than ever. “Why?”

“Because—Because you’re going to die soon,” Kevin says. “And I’ve been trying not to get attached.”

“Is it working?” Neil asks, his stomach churning.

Kevin lets out a shaky breath and looks away. “Not really.”

Neil shrugs, the movement slow with all the stitches. This is the closest they’ve ever come to admitting that they’re soulmates. That it might mean something. 

Nicky calls for them, says they’re going to get Andrew, and the tension between them evaporates. They step apart and follow Aaron and Nicky to the car. 

They don’t really talk about it, but they grow closer in the following weeks. Neil almost tells Kevin about the countdown on his phone, but he deletes the messages instead. He grows closer to the Foxes like a final exhale. He trains twice as hard. 

He talks with Renee about Andrew, and learns more about platonic soulmates. They’re more mirrors of each other, spaces safe from sex and judgement. Platonic soulmates are common, more common even than not having a soulmate at all. 

He’s covered in blood before a game and it’s Kevin pulling him back, keeping him from his uniform. If Kevin’s pulling him back from exy gear, there must be a good reason. Kevin holds on a second too long, but it helps Neil focus on the game when his real birthday is exposed to the team and the fact that he’s hiding something resurfaces. 

It’s Kevin that tells them all to back off, they’ve got a game, and he appreciates it. Kevin is an ally, even if he cowers in the shadows of the Moriyamas. Kevin could be more than an ally, if they let themselves think about it. 

They don’t think about it.

Neil ends up in Baltimore. He winds up seeing his uncle, hospital staff and FBI custody. He won’t say anything before he sees his team. The Foxes are in a hotel in Baltimore and Neil’s stiff but he’s so, so happy they’re still alive. 

Kevin’s hands are on him, and the selfishness of his reaction to Neil’s burned tattoo is forgiven when he lets Neil lean against him. When they try and take him, Kevin won’t let him go alone. The FBI agents try and talk over him and get him to stay with the Foxes, but Kevin declares himself Neil’s soulmate and refuses to go let them take Neil away from him. Legally, they can’t separate soulmates unless one is being convicted or it’s an immediate life-threatening situation. Soulmates are recognized and more binding than a marriage could be, so Kevin is allowed to stay as they spend hours digging Nathaniel’s grave, excavating his and his father’s secrets.

Neil Josten comes back to the Foxes as a real person. 

He falls into Kevin, the threat of imminent death subsided. They practice and learn together, and it’s not jist about Exy. They can take their time and explore new moments, new possibilities.

It becomes normal. Nicky gripes about missing his opportunity with Kevin, who was conveniently on his “freebie” list. Andrew orbits around them, his promise to protect Kevin still intact, their friendship growing.

When Ichirou promises them their lives for part of their salaries, when he kills Riko and the Foxes win the championship, any doubts they had about each other are gone. They both have futures ahead of them. 

They can finally catch their breath.

  
  



End file.
